Fun topic!
What are your favorite tricks/cue/behaviors to teach your dogs?
I don't know that I love it most when I was teaching it (although I found it incredibly fascinating to work on), but the 'hug' we taught as TOTW is still my favorite thing Gusto can do.
I mean, really? How is that not the best thing ever?
What's the first thing you like working on with a new dog?
I haven't really had many "new" dogs to know! Nose-to-hand touch, probably. And down, because I like down.
What's your most used trick?
'Collar'. It basically started as a misunderstanding - my agility trainer at the time suggested teaching Meg to let me grab her collar using the collar grab game (grab collar, give cookie, release). For some reason I thought I was supposed to teach Meg to give me her collar. I loved it so much I taught Gusto as well. Basically, if I hold my hand out and down with my fingers spread, they slam the side of their neck into my hand.
I use it constantly. If my dogs are sitting looking at me like they want a pet, I put my hand down so they move into it, rather than me reaching for them. It has taught both of them to move into a hand like that, so when people tentatively try to pet them, they don't flinch away or anything. And by moving their neck into the hand, they don't scare the person by reaching with their mouths/nose (okay, Gusto sometimes does it with open mouth, but only to me, and when he's wound up).
The best part about it is that it basically eliminated Gusto's very good game of keep away. I could follow him around outside reaching for his collar for 10 minutes while he skirts away, staying just out of reach. But the second I put my hand down and say "collar" he slams right into it, and I can reward and catch him.
What is your dogs favorite trick to do?
Meg - stick 'em up. A sit pretty with her paws stretch above her head. It is adorable, she knows it always makes me grin and treat her, so it makes her incredibly happy to be asked!
Gusto - bark. Good lord. It was the best and worst thing I ever trained.
What trick has been surprisingly useful?
Gusto's bark. He never used to bark outside an alert situation. I taught it as stress relief, and it works brilliantly for that. When he is stressy and shutting down, it is the last behavior that he loses the ability to perform. When he can't sit and can't do a hand touch and can't make eye contact, he can bark. And then he can get a cookie and re-orientate. I was using it like that at an agility seminar in the spring, and the instructor was very complementary about how it works and suggested it to others with the same issue.
Granted, now he barks when we are shaping, but alas.
What trick haven't you taught but you would like to?
Holding stuff in his mouth. I've played with it a tiny bit, but quickly get stuck. I love the dogs that can hold a flower stem or basket or something like that in their mouths. I have no good way of teaching it that I've learned.